Digital bit synchronizer for low transition densities

1. A bit recovery subsystem for synchronizing a received digital signal with a transmitted digital signal, comprising: a demodulator that receives an RF signal encoded with digital information representative of a transmit bit clock and producing a baseband signal; voltage comparators that process the baseband signal to produce two digital logic signals; a latch that converts the two digital logic signals into unsynchronized data and inverted unsynchronized data; a bit synchronizer that processes the unsynchronized data and inverted unsynchronized data to produce a derived bit clock; and a reclock latch that processes the unsynchronized data and the derived bit clock delayed by a phase to produce synchronized data.

2. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 1, wherein the latch comprises an S-R latch.

3. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 1, wherein the bit synchronizer comprises: an oscillator; a decoder that generates a first, second and third clock signals based on the oscillator; a transition filter that receives and processes the first clock signal, the unsynchronized data and the inverted unsynchronized data to produce an indication that a valid data transition has occurred in the unsynchronized data; a quadrant detector that receives the indication and generates an output that controls the first, second and third clock signals to maintain valid data transitions in the unsynchronized data; and a clock generator that receives the second and third clock signals from the decoder and generates the derived bit clock.

4. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 3, wherein the bit synchronizer further comprises an up/down counter that receives the output from the quadrant detector and generates an output signal that controls the first, second and third clock signals generated by the decoder.

5. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 4, wherein the bit synchronizer further comprises a frequency indicator that displays a frequency at which the derived bit clock is oscillating.

6. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 3, further comprising a reset generator that generates lock and unlock signals.

7. The bit recovery subsystem of claim 6, further comprising a phase lock indicator receiving the lock and unlock signals from the reset generator and providing a visual indication of whether the quadrant detector is locked.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the decoder comprises a direct digital synthesizer.

9. A method of synchronizing a received digital signal with a transmitted digital signal, comprising the steps of: receiving an RF signal encoded with digital information representative of a transmit bit clock and producing a baseband signal; processing the baseband signal to produce two digital logic signals; converting the two digital logic signals into unsynchronized data and inverted unsynchronized data; processing the unsynchronized data and inverted unsynchronized data to produce a derived bit clock; and processing the unsynchronized data and the derived bit clock to produce synchronized data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of processing the unsynchronized data and inverted unsynchronized data to produce a derived bit clock comprises the steps of: generating first, second and third clock signals based; processing the first clock signal, the unsynchronized data and the inverted unsynchronized data to produce an indication that a valid data transition has occurred in the unsynchronized data; generating an output that controls the first, second and third clock signals to maintain valid data transitions in the unsynchronized data; and generating the derived bit clock from the second and third clock signals.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of generating an output signal that controls the first, second and third clock signals.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of displaying a frequency at which the derived bit clock is oscillating.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of generating lock and unlock signals.